Centrobasket 2016: Puerto Ricans beat Dominicans, go for gold

Panama City.- After defeating theDominican Republic 74-69, Puerto Rico will go against defendingchampions Mexico in the final of the Men’s Central American andCaribbean Basketball Championship.

Mexico crashed Panama’s hopes 59-52 andwill chase their second consecutive Centrobasket crown. The DominicanRepublic and Panama will fight for the bronze medal.

According to FIBA.com, a win in thetitle game would be a huge injection of morale for Puerto Rico priorto the Belgrade Olympic Qualifying Tournament , as they last liftedthe Centrobasket trophy in 2010. The ‘Boricuas’ then reached thefinal in 2012 and again in 2014 but lost on both occasions, thesecond one to Mexico.

At the six-team Belgrade OQT, PuertoRico will go up against Serbia and Angola in Group A and thenpotentially face Japan, Latvia or Czech Republic in a Semi-Final. TheSemi-Final winners will play each other for a spot at Rio 2016.